Trading Standards officers are investigating an alleged £100,000 fraud involving luxury Christmas hampers.

Thousands of people applying for the £99 hampers are being urged to cancel payment due to fears the company selling them - ACS Limited, of 82 Great Eastern Street, London - could be breaking the law.

People from Oxfordshire sent off cheques after seeing the offer advertised last month for discounted hampers to be delivered to their homes.

Now their cheques have been stopped while police and Oxfordshire trading standards officers investigate.

Police investigating the alleged deception believe thousands of people have contacted the company and paid by cash or cheque, but have yet to receive the goods.

Dc Sam Brough, of the Metropolitan Police based in Shoreditch, said in a letter to residents obtained by the Oxford Mail: "Following certain misgivings by the local Trading Standards authority being brought to our attention, police have commenced an investigation into the activities of the above mentioned company.

"The investigation is in its early stages. There is at this moment in time no evidence to support the suspicion the company is engaged in fraud although as I mentioned earlier, the investigation is still in its early stages."

Police have arrested two men from Guildford, Surrey, in connection with the alleged deception and they have been bailed.

Oxfordshire Trading Standards officer Debbie Dent said: "The possible backlash will not start unless people do not get their hampers. We are waiting for the possible avalanche but we know quite a few cheques were stopped.

"We seized a lot and sent them back, but we do not know what went through."

So far around 200 cheques written by residents in Oxfordshire and elsewhere, totalling almost £20,000, are known to have been stopped while police investigate the company, whose registered address is in London.

The Oxford Mail yesterday tried to contact the company by telephone without success. The company placed an advertisement in many regional newspapers, including the Oxford Mail, and the Oxford Times, last month. It offered a £490 Luxury Xmas Food And Drink Hamper at a discounted price of £99.

When customers applied, the company wrote back to them and asked them to pay before the hamper was sent out. Customers paid and then chose a delivery date for later this month.

But queries from residents prompted action from trading standards officers and the police.

Pat Jones, 43, of Hughes Close, Charlbury, and her elderly mother both answered the advert and are now having their cheques cancelled.

Mrs Jones said her mother was upset having borrowed the £99 from the family. She added: "It was a treat for her because she thought of giving her grand-children something extra for Christmas."

Carol Oakley, 33, of Eastfield Road, Witney, is also seeking a refund. So too is Mary Paxton, 54, of Cuddesdon Road, Horspath.

Susan Edwards, Chief Trading Standards Officer for the London Borough of Hackney, said: "Trading standards officers and the police have moved quickly to safeguard consumers interests, it is now up to anyone who responded to these adverts to help the police in their investigation."

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